X-Mercs Arc: Book Two: Everything Changes
by Nighteyes27
Summary: While the five are missing, several relationships are changed.... (stars Phoenix, Psylocke and Angel among others)


Book Two: Everything Changes  
  
Summary: While Avalanche, Iceman, Domino, Moonstar and Shadowcat are missing, several relationships are changed permanently.  
  
Rating: R for adult situations and language.  
  
Disclaimer: None of the characters mentioned herein belong to me-they're all Marvel's, unfortunately, some would say. I'm making no $$ off of this, and no copyright infringement intended. However, the plot, Arkanon, Shadow and scripting belong to me.  
  
Chapter One: Not Enough  
  
"What?" Warren 'Angel' Worthington III asked his longtime girlfriend Betsy 'Psylocke' Braddock. Disbelieving, stunned, hurt.  
"Exactly what I said, Warren," Betsy said, looking at him sadly. Grieving for them, the spark they once had, that was now an ember. Sad, but understanding and accepting. 'I must do this,' Betsy told herself to strengthen her fortitude. 'Crikes, woman, you know you two have been-how did Tabitha put it-"grinding gears" as a couple for a while now. Sure, the sex is great, and we like each other well enough...but it's not enough. It's never enough.'  
'So I have to do this, no matter what it costs...or who it hurts.'  
"*Excuse* me, Betsy?" Warren asked, maddeningly calm. "I could have sworn you just said we were over."  
Turning on his heel, he stalked over to the window. Grabbing the wooden crosspiece, he clenched it hard, every line in his back and wings screaming tension.  
Betsy followed, tentatively putting a hand on his shoulders, feeling the tension within him. 'He'll strain a muscle if he doesn't relax-'  
"Yes, Warren, I did."  
'Damn her!' Warren cursed. 'She sounds so calm and resigned.'  
"Why?" he questioned. Spinning, he grabbed her by the waist and hauled her to him, feeling the soft firmness of her breasts against his muscular chest even as he knew she must feel his erection through the thin material of their sweatpants, that had the 'X' logo on the butt.  
Hauling her mouth to his, ignoring her surprised look, he kissed her passionately. Betsy moaned into his mouth, and he hauled her closer to him, melding their bodies together. it was no use, however. After a minute she broke the kiss and back off, shaking.  
Warren, never one to miss a God-sent opportunity, followed her, advancing like a predator. "Tell me you didn't feel that," he breathed.  
Betsy shook her head. "I did. And...." she trailed off and faced away from him, mumbling the next part under her breath.  
"And?" he asked quietly, slipping a hand onto her shoulder. She whirled to face him, eyes blazing. "And that's the problem!"  
She advanced on him, and he retreated, their positions of moments ago reversed. She, ardent, he, confused. "Yes, I feel that, Warren. But it's *all* I feel. When you kiss me, I feel passion, not love. When you touch me, it's electric, but not sweet. When you enter me, it's just an act of passion, not a joining of two souls. Yes, I think it-*we*- *were* more when my telepathy wasn't...occupied," she said, grimacing at the thought of the Shadow King running around in her head. "But no telepathy is no excuse. What we have is just sexual fulfillment. It's not...love. Not love in the sense of head over heels love. It's a friendship love. It is. When I look at you, I see a friend. And that would be all right, because I *want* a friend in a lover...but *all* I see is a friend. I *don't* see a lover. Chemistry was all we ever *really* had."  
He tried to deny it. "Betts, that's not the way-"  
"Yes, it is," she pointed out. She stuck her face close to his, having backed him up to the edge of the bed. "Tell me, Warren, can you imagine a life with me? As your wife? And us having children?"  
Warren shut his eyes. That was all the answer Betsy needed. "I know you want what Jean and Scott have-had," she corrected herself sadly, remembering the X-Men's latest and greatest loss.  
His eyes flew open, and Betsy smiled half-bitterly, half-sarcastically. "Hell, Warren, *no one* needs telepathy to see that. And, to a lesser extent, I want what they had as well."  
"And we won't find it in each other," she said, her voice ringing with finality. He opened his mouth to deny it.  
She held a finger to his mouth, shaking her head gently. "Don't, lover," she interrupted him in a whisper. "I'll get my stuff from your penthouse in a little while."  
She removed her finger, and smiled a sad smile. Warren knew the image would be burned into his mind forever.  
By tacit consent, they hugged one last time. They kissed one last, sweet kiss, trying to forever memorize the taste of the other. Slipping away, Betsy retreated into the shadows and was gone.  
Warren looked away, a tear running down his face. He put two fingers to his mouth.  
Whirling, he assumed his position of minutes ago, holding the bar tightly.  
With a crack, the wood shattered.  
"Good-bye, Betsy."  
  
And, miles away in Warren's penthouse, Betsy cried as well. Mimicking his actions, she grabbed all of her clothes, spare uniforms and other personal items from their assorted closets and drawers. She put off of the items into a big duffel bag that she found in the closet-'I was *wondering* where that went,' she thought, semi-amused.  
She paused at their nightstand.  
There were two pictures there, of Betsy and Warren at the mall, laughing, taking a break from the superhero gig. Nicely framed in silver, they stood there as testaments to the residents of the penthouse.  
Betsy took one, holding it in her hand. She had pictures, as well, of the other men she had ever felt something for-Douglas Ramsey, the deceased 'Cypher' of the New Mutants.  
'Taking the picture means it's truly over.'  
Betsy slipped the picture into the pack. As a tear ran down her face, she looked at the remaining picture of herself and Warren. She gently placed fingertips to his face.  
"Good-bye, Warren."  
  
Chapter Two: Breaking Through  
  
'Damn!' Jean Grey-Summers, codenamed Phoenix, snarled to herself in the lab at Muir Isle. She *hated* being locked into small glass tubes like the one she was currently in.  
Moira MacTaggert was busy trying to find a cure to the Legacy Virus, aware that her time was rapidly running out, but had taken time out to try and help Jean ascertain for sure that there would be no permanent damage to Jean when she broke the faint psi-bond she shared with Apocalypse for good.  
Jean now accepted that Scott was dead. Through the psi-bond, she could feel no traces of him anymore.   
'Jean's not coping very well,' Betsy thought, worried. 'She's not thinking about it-trying not to, anyway. I fear for her and for us all when she finally starts the grieving process. She needs friends.'  
Betsy sighed. Friends were in short supply now.  
The X-Men were dissolving around her, she could feel it. The once-close team was being pulled apart, with the breakups of Excalibur and X-Factor and the recent deaths.  
X-Force had gone rogue under Pete Wisdom, in effect kicking Domino and Dani Moonstar out when they refused to accept Wisdom as leader ('Wisdom's turned them into a cult of Wisdom-worshippers,' Betsy thought sourly. 'And I wonder about him and Tabitha....'). Dani and Domino's being missing wouldn't be cause for worry, normally...but both had disappeared, not making the rendezvous at the Mansion that they had agreed to, and Cable couldn't raise Domino on the psi-bond they shared. He could ascertain she was alive, but that was about it.  
Betsy sighed. Nathan Summers was pulling into himself, with Scott's death and Domino's disappearance. She knew that Wisdom's commandeering of X-Force couldn't have sat well with Nathan, either, after they rejected him only to later be led by Wisdom-a man much like Cable himself. Worse, in Betsy's opinion.  
Kitty Pryde, Bobby Drake and Dominic Petros-or Avalanche-had been missing for the same amount of time as Domino and Dani. It was too coordinated to be coincidental...but no one knew where they were or if they had been kidnapped at all.  
Warren, Ororo Munroe and Logan weren't there, either. Warren had responsibilities to Worthington Industries ('And,' something whispered in Betsy's mind, 'He couldn't face you.'). Ignoring the little voice, she sighed. 'At least *one* of the other three remaining original X-Men could've been here,' she thought irritably. 'Personal considerations aside. Admittedly, Bobby has good reason, but Warren or Hank *could* and *should* be here!'  
Storm and Wolverine were scouring the globe for Kitty. They blamed themselves, and had mentioned that shortly before Kitty went AWOL, they had had a fight, but hadn't elaborated. They obviously thought it was their fault Kitty had left. Enlisting Yukio's aid (reuniting Ororo and Yukio had been her idea, and she applauded herself for it, because she had a fair idea of what they felt for each other), they were using their myriad of contacts to try and find the missing X-Men.  
'Are they right to blame themselves?' Betsy asked herself. 'I know Kitty fairly well, and I think she's too responsible to just run off...but Ororo and Logan *can* be patronizing and somewhat demeaning at times, without realizing it.'  
Henry McCoy was serving a stint on the Avengers to try and dull his pain at Scott's death. Betsy didn't believe it was working, but it wasn't her affair.  
Rahne Sinclair and Piotr Rasputin were on Muir, true. Wolfsbane lived there and Colossus was mentally prepping himself for his upcoming trip in space. But Rahne was obsessed with Moira's welfare-like making sure the insane woman *slept* and *ate*-and Piotr had issues of his own that made him ineffective in this situation.  
'Is Moira blind?' Betsy wondered. 'Yes, she doesn't have much time left, but doesn't she see she's cutting it shorter by working nonstop, and not treasuring the things she has-like Rahne or Sean?'  
Rogue and Remy LeBeau were, as always, mooning over each other too much to be of help. Gambit was off running the Thieves' Guild as well.   
Lorna Dane-Polaris- was also incapacitated by grief, desperately clinging to hopes that Alex Summers-Havok- was alive. Personally, Betsy felt that was a lost cause, but she didn't want to *totally* demoralize Polaris. The woman's psyche was fragile as it was.  
Cecilia Reyes and Marrow wanted nothing more to do with the X-Men. Betsy's brother, Brian, was depowered, and Meggan didn't really know Jean that well.  
Generation X was busy with Synch's death and their rebuilding process, so they were tied up, and Banshee's daughter Theresa Rourke, Siryn, was busy running around with the infamous mercenary Deadpool, trying to find a way to heal her throat.  
So Betsy was here basically because she was a teammate and was available. 'I'm all Jean's got,' she thought, looking into the glass tube that housed the Phoenix, for the time being. 'But what if I'm not enough?'  
Jean smiled in the tube. I'm ready, Moira, Betsy, she sent telepathically.  
Moira swallowed. "A'right then, lass, whenever yuir ready."  
There was silence in the lab for a few moments as Jean's eyes eased closed, and Moira and Betsy frequently glanced at each other. They were wide-eyed, worried about Jean. Betsy noticed that Moira's forehead was slick with sweat, and swallowed hard. Moira, for her part, noticed both the coiled tension and power in the ninja's body and the fact that she kept licking her lips.  
'I wonder if this experiment reminds Betsy o' wha' she went through a' th' hands o' th' Hand. I bet she's upset, too, a' no' bein' able t' sense what's goin' on-normally, her telepathy would help her, but now....'  
Silence and peace reigned for a few more moments in the lab. Then....  
"Betsy!" Moira suddenly looked up, eyes wide. "Th' power spikes be off th' charts!" the Scotswoman shouted. "In only a minute, th' lass will-!"  
And Betsy's spine arched with pain as she felt the psychic backlash of Jean's severing of her bond with Apocalypse.  
It was agony beyond endurance, it was losing her eyes and Sabertooth's attack and every pain she had ever endured in her lifetime rolled into a ball and multiplied by a thousand.  
Quickly forming mental armor around herself and Moira, she thought, Moira! What the *hell* happened?!   
Th' lass tried t' break th' bond too quickly! Moira shot back. She cannae do that! She did it too violently! Apocalypse felt her do it, and a' th' last second, he tried t' do a mental attack. The bond's snapping must'a amplified his attack!   
Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone.  
Betsy Jean appeared in Betsy's mind, the Phoenix aura around her. Her "eyes" were wide with horror. I've got it under control, but get out now, before-!   
Too late, a silky mental voice said laughingly. And Betsy felt something snap deep within her mind, and realized with a sense of dread what had happened.  
Betsy cursed a blue streak. Wha' happened? Moira demanded.  
The Shadow King's out!   
  
Chapter Three: Bind  
  
Phoenix took a quick stock of the situation. It wasn't good.  
Farouk was out of Psylocke, and was now occupied with trying to shred her mind to bits. Psylocke was holding out fairly well, but she hadn't had her telepathy for months and was rusty. With but a thought, Phoenix helped out and formed a shield between the Shadow King and Psylocke and Moira quickly.  
Phoenix! Psylocke sent.  
What, Psylocke? she sent, preoccupied with keeping him away from Psylocke and Moira.  
When I give the word, Psylocke sent tensely, Get yourself and Moira clear. Don't question me.   
Psylocke- Phoenix began.  
Just DO IT, Phoenix! snapped Psylocke Please? she begged in a whisper.  
Phoenix merely "nodded" her consent.  
NOW!   
  
Psylocke was rapidly running out of options. She felt cold inside.  
She had never told anybody, but the Crimson Dawn had contacted her, after she had imprisoned Farouk in her mind.  
It had given her a way out of this situation. 'Somehow,' Betsy thought, un-amused, 'It must have foreseen this.'  
'Now, quickly, Betsy old girl, before you lose your nerve.'  
JEAN! yelled Betsy. NOW!   
With that she took all of her abilities. The shadow-hopping power, her knife, her telepathy, and schooled it into one blade.  
Taking this blade, formed of Psylocke's superhero talents and forged in the mind and soul of Betsy Braddock, she struck the core of Farouk.  
He shattered.  
But what Psylocke had neglected to notice was that Phoenix was not totally clear.  
A sense of everything being ripped apart and out of them his the two. Powers, souls, thoughts, minds merged, and, for a second, they were one.  
Their telepathy suddenly kicked out, so fast it gave them vertigo, and they were left in the Muir Isle lab with a very worried Moira MacTaggert watching them wide-eyed.  
Then they both collapsed.  
  
Chapter Four: Break  
  
Two days later, Betsy Braddock was traveling to Braddock Manor along with Jean Grey-Summers, to be reunited with a very worried Brian and Meggan Braddock.  
She and Jean hadn't spoken a word to each other in the two days since...the Incident.  
They had been informed by a worried-looking Moira that their powers had been switched.  
"Yuir powers have been switched," Moira said, cautiously, peering at them uncertainly over spectacles.  
"I'm afraid ye, Betsy, have lost all'a yuir telepathy," Moira had stated bluntly. "An' yuir shadow powers. However, ye've gained all'a Jean's telekinesis.  
"Jean, ye've lost yuir telekinesis totally. However, ye've inherited Betsy's telepathy, almost doubling yuir own. In addition, ye two now have a psi-bond.  
"Th' shadow powers have been, however, lost," Moira admitted. Then she scowled.  
"I cannae understand where they've gone. They should'a gone t' Jean-"  
"They returned to the Crimson Dawn," Betsy interrupted, almost dreamily. Moira watched her, worried. Jean and Betsy had wandered around in trances for the entire day after their switch-it was almost catatonia.  
"The Crimson Dawn's deal was with me. I suppose, when our powers were switched-" and here she flinched minutely-"they considered the deal null and void, and reclaimed the powers."  
Moira's eyes narrowed, then she nodded. "Best theory I've 'eard all day."  
"I'm going to Braddock Mannor tomorrow," Betsy semi-interrupted. "Anyone wishing to go with me-" here her eyes flickered towards Jean, the offer was obviously for her benefit-"may do so."  
So here they were, a day later, in total silence in the jet they borrowed from Moira. Betsy would've flown them to Braddock Manor, using her telekinesis, but, frankly, she didn't have anywhere near the experience needed to do so.  
Besides, she liked flying in planes. She wasn't ready for open air yet.  
Setting the jet down on the tennis court ('Have to love advanced technology,' Psylocke thought), she looked over at Jean. Her companion nodded once, and they grabbed their duffels in silence and exited the plane.  
Betsy knew they must look eerie to Brian and Meggan, who were watching from the window. Two women, both stony-faced, neither talking.  
Meggan flew out to greet them. "Betsy! Jean! It's great to see you!" Hugging them both exuberantly, she sensed some of their emotions and backed off slightly, emerald eyes narrowing.  
"Indeed, it is," Brian added. Hugging Betsy and kissing her on the cheek, he then shook Jean's hand, proffered mutely. "Welcome to our home, Jean," he said formally.  
"Thank you."  
  
"Betts, what's wrong?" Brian Braddock walked into his sister's room, dressed in a robe.  
"Didn't you ever hear of knocking?" Betsy asked without any real rancor as she spun to face him quietly. She had been staring out the window.  
"It's my house. And, yes, Betts old girl, I know it's yours as well, but something's bothering you."  
"I'm fine," she told him quietly, and went to move away.  
The former Captain Britain grabbed her wrists loosely but securely. Sapphire eyes looked pleadingly into amethyst. "Betsy, I'm your twin," he said, almost begging. "I can tell something's bothering you-you've barely spoken in the day you've been here."  
Betsy studied him for a moment, then sighed. "It happened like this..."  
  
"...So now Betsy has my telekinesis, I have her telepathy, we have a psi-bond and the Crimson Dawn shadow powers were lost," Jean confided in Meggan.  
She hadn't meant to, at first, really. But things like this were too big to effectively bottle up for any significant length of time. Meggan was a ready and willing ear, and her empathetic powers made confiding in her easier.  
"That's one hell of a tale, Jean," Meggan said, surprised. She had known something was bothering both women, but not something as major as this.  
However, in retrospect, the day made sense. Jean had been flighty and uncomfortable all day. Meggan, with 20/20 hindsight, realized that she must be having problems blocking out the feelings and thoughts of the others.  
Betsy, for her part, had seemed much more insensitive than usual-obviously an aftereffect of losing her telepathy.  
"It's all right, Jean," Meggan began as soon as she could muster enough composure to do so. "I'm sure you two will-"  
But she never got to finish her sentence as the four inhabitants of Braddock Mannor disappeared.  
  
Illyana Rasputin-the original Magik-embraced Amanda Sefton as the latter prepared to leave Limbo.  
"Don't forget to be back in a week, Amanda, so we can begin the final preparations to transfer all of my duties, powers and responsibilities to you."  
"I will," Amanda smiled. "At least the only people I will visit will be Mother and Kurt. While all the other Excalibur members know I am the new Magik, they are the only ones that know that, while I *am* the new Magik, I am being tutored by the *original* Magik."  
Smiling, Amanda stepped through the portal that Illyana had opened for her.  
"Travel well and hurry back, Amanda," Illyana thought.  
She was eager to get out of Limbo and back to her best friend Kitty Pryde-who thought she as Magik had died about three years ago, and thought that Illyana had died about a year and a half ago. Little did Kitty know that Magik needed to deceive certain demon enemies to her whereabouts-so she took a demon that had been bothering her, morphed him into her younger self's shape, *molded* him so that he would virtually *be* her younger self, put him in the armor, and fed the New Mutants a load of b.s. as to her retroactive erasure. Sam Guthrie had pointed out a flaw in that everyone *remembered* her as Magik-but to Illyana's relief and somewhat disappointment, no one had ever followed up on it.  
However, when she had finally gained control of Limbo after everything had happened, she found she, as Magik, was bound to Limbo until she could get someone to take over for her.  
Amanda's life was in ruins. Her mother was estranged, she had lost her friends and her job paid little. Her breakup with Kurt was the final straw-she sincerely wanted to do good, and saw being the mistress of Limbo as doing good. Illyana was just eager to be out.  
She wanted to get to know Kitty again-and perhaps rekindle their relationship. She knew Kitty would be pissed off majorly, but believed she could weather the storm. And she was also eager to leave Limbo, and all it entailed, once and for all, and be free and happy. But Fate was going to intervene one more time.  
But then she hesitated. Her nostrils flared, she smelt burnt ozone.  
She whirled. A horrified, terrified, revolted expression of hatred took over her face. "You!!!"  
As Illyana blacked out and the black-clad man shouldered her, he clicked a comm unit clipped to his shirt.  
"I've got the first bait. I'll drop her off at the rendezvous."  
  
Rachel Summers, or the Phoenix, scowled, stuck in the timestream.  
'I'm getting *really* sick of timehopping,' she thought, pissed.  
'Now, I'm not sure exactly *why* my memories have huge gaps in them-again!-but I want to go back *home*. Not my timeline, but my adopted one, and fuck the consequences! To see Excalibur again-especially Kitty.'  
'Kitty...' her mind wandered. She and Kitty had...unresolved issues and tensions. She knew Kitty would probably be gun-shy and leery of a relationship at first, but Rachel didn't care. She just wanted to see her best friend again.  
Suddenly, Rachel stiffened. The Phoenix Force was sensing something dangerous in the timestream. Rachel cast out, warily, but somehow managed to miss the dangerous object hurtling towards her.  
Hitting her, it knocked her out cold and reeled her into the waiting arms of a ship piloted by a man in black.  
"I've got the second bait, heading back to base."  
  
The man, looking like he had just stepped out of the Middle Ages, turned to his black-clad shadow.  
"We have the baits," he said, coldly and cruelly. "Prepare the ship."  
And Shadow, scurrying off to do the commands of Arkanon's-his master, friend, and sometime lover's-commands, smiled.


End file.
